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by fsh 1186 days ago
Or the US could start burying its residential power lines like the other industrialized countries do. Day-long power outages just do not happen there.
2 comments

Burying is a good idea and I'm a fan of it for sure. The issues I've seen on my block is the transformer out on the pole fails about every 7 years.

As an aside, it's an interesting failure scenario because there's a loud explosion outside my window, then I get 120v 50hz power from whatever is left of the transformer so half the house lights work at an odd warm glow. :D

My neighborhood has buried lines. We've lost power a handful of times in the last 5 years, usually due to extreme cold(Midwest), or animals getting into power station equipment. Admittedly not day-long outages though. So far the extreme cold cases have been luckily short, so it wasn't a big concern, but if they were longer then I would've been wishing for some sort of backup power for my gas furnace or for a wood stove.
You can bury local lines. But look around and I'm sure within a mile you'll see high-tension lines going across the land, those are very expensive (very) to bury, because they give off quite a bit of heat.